BY NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
BROWNSVILLE — Austin Lake Travis took control early in the first Region IV Class 6A semifinal match of the day Friday morning, and La Joya Juarez-Lincoln couldn’t recover en route to a 3-0 loss at Brownsville Sports Park.
Three first-half goals were more than enough for the Cavaliers to slam the door on the Huskies’ season. Lake Travis moved onto the regional final.
Juarez-Lincoln finished the year with a 33-2-1 overall record, while Lake Travis improved to 22-4-0.
While the first half attack was enough to put the Cavs up on the Huskies for good, Juarez-Lincoln improved as the game went on. Junior forward Melanie Olivares said her team needed to show heart for the supporters.
“It took a lot of hard work to get where we’re at,” Olivares said. “I feel that we had to play for all these people and we had to show our heart.”
Lake Travis had Juarez-Lincoln on its heels for much of the first half. Junior Natalie Yoo opened the scoring with 36:22 to play.
Yoo created the chance following a soft touch and was able to put the ball past Jennifer Perez in the Huskies net.
Following the goal, the Huskies returned to their game, owning possession of the ball and stringing passes together. The Cavs, however, were ready for that attack and sprung forward when they took the ball to counterattack. Issues arose when the District 25-6A runners up were able to find space coming back.
Lake Travis senior Brooke Berens scored a goal with 26:26 to play that took the wind out of the Juarez-Lincoln sails. Just seconds later, Maia Courtois scored on a sharp angle along the endline to seal the deal early.
Juarez-Lincoln had a chance to trim the deficit to two goals, but Pricila Hernandez’s penalty kick went over the crossbar before halftime.
“The nervousness kicked in for our athletes,” Huskies coach Rick Garza said. “I think the presence of them getting to this level. For the first 20 minutes, they were a little bit nervous and that’s when the three goals entered. Lake Travis did a good job of keeping an open person at all times and that’s something we had to adjust to in the second half.”
Olivares said her team wasn’t the same from one half to the next.
“We had made a lineup that was going to be best for the game,” Olivares said. “It did not work so we went back to our regular lineup and it worked. Second half it kind of worked, we shut them down. We were doing better.”
As the game went on, the physicality of the playoff season started to wear down the Huskies. Freshman defender Stephanie Jimenez had to pick herself off the turf on multiple occasions and Olivares, who had previously been injured, finished the game with a noticeable limp.
“Like I said, it’s taken a lot to get to where we’re at,” Olivares said. “That’s what keeps us going. You get hurt, you get beaten down, you get up. This is what we deserve, we earned to be here. We weren’t going to let ourselves down. If we were going to lose we weren’t going to let them run all over us.”
Lake Travis advances to the Region IV Class 6A championship match against Harlingen South, which upset Austin Westlake in semifinals. The Hawks are the fourth RGV girls team to reach the regional finals and will try to send an area girls team to state for the second year in a row.
Last season, McAllen High defeated Lake Travis in the regional championship. Cavaliers coach Trey Young said his team had that loss fresh on their mind.
“That was the message today, ‘Take nobody lightly and remember McAllen (High) last year,’” Young said. “We’re going to be careful and not look farther ahead. We’re not talking about winning state this year, we’re not doing any of that.”